Breguet was founded by Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris in 1775. From 1870 to 1970 it was owned by the English Brown family. In 1976, its then owner Chaumet closed the French factory, and moved production to the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland. In 1991 the brand’s Bahraini owner Investcorp created Groupe Horloger Breguet (GHB) including Valdar SA and Nouvelle Lemania S.A. The Breguet group has been part of The Swatch Group since 1999.

The brand, along with Vacheron Constantin, is one of the oldest surviving watch-making brands and a pioneer of numerous watch-making technologies, such as the tourbillon, invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet. It also produced the first wrist watch in 1810.